Images of war are often embodied by machine guns and tanks, but there’s a growing sense from many in Washington that the most effective weapons in future wars will be keyboards and computer screens.

“There are no cruise missiles, there are no tanks, there are no planes -- but you could undermine someone’s stock market, you could hack into it and crash it, you could cause a run on the banks so to speak,” said Kevin Freeman, author and founder of the National Security Investment Consultant Institute.

“That’s what we’ve seen with some of these cyber-attacks. They’re not hitting the dot-mil addresses. They’re hitting the dot com accounts. They’re hitting businesses and they’re hitting families,” he said.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who also sits on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, seems to agree.

“Whether it’s recruiting a lone wolf or trying to influence public opinion in some ways, these are all very effective weapons. The landscape of warfare is clearly changing,” Sen. Peters said in an interview Wednesday.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are calling for more action not just by the government but with private companies. They say without their help, combating the cyber threat will be almost impossible.